Set Me Free
by Mimi-dudette
Summary: Tobias aquires the Red-tailed hawk and flies for the first time and for the first time in his life, feels totally free. He realizes that he has something worth fighting for. Slight Tobias / Rachel because they rock XD Please read and review! One-shot


**This starts when Tobias first aquires the Red-tailed hawk which is all the way back in book one ^.^ I was going to do a one shot on when Tobias turns into a northit but because there are a few of those, I decided to this instead unless anyone wants me to write that one too. I never get tired of writing Tobias ^.^**

**Please read and review! Oh and I don't own anything, except perhaps... um... no, I don't own anything -.-

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I couldn't help it. Someone like Cassie's dad could have walked in at any moment but ever since I saw the birds in the clinic, I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

See, I don't have the best home life. I get shunted between a much-married and ignoring Aunt and an alcoholic Uncle, who I sometimes wish would ignore me more; none of them want me, they say it themselves. I guess that's what's made me kind of a bully magnet at school. Ever since I can remember, I just wanted to… sometimes, I felt like I just needed to… well, fly away from everything.

Fly away.

Did I mention my name is Tobias?

I passed raccoons, skunks and a load of other animals without a second glance, so transfixed by these two amazing birds I had spotted a bit further in. They kept ruffling their feathers, shifting around in their small cages; as I reached them, the closer one with brown and red feathers and these amazingly intense gold eyes looked me over before it started preening it's feathers with a cool indifference.

The other one seemed too used to humans to even bother with me.

Reading the charts, I made out that the brown-and-red one was called a red-tailed hawk while the other was an osprey.

I stroked both of them with a finger, taking way too much time. But at that moment, I couldn't care less about the time.

They were both amazing, and I actually had the power to_morph _into one of them.

It was surreal.

I was seriously tempted by the osprey, but I found myself mesmerised by the hawk. Something seemed to draw me to it… I know it sounds dumb, but I felt as though I already knew it. Like I had seen that exact bird before in a dream, or a dream of a dream.

Whatever my reason, I rested my hand on it and before it could react; I began to acquire the red-tailed hawk's DNA.

I felt so happy… but at the same time, I got this sense of depression. I don't know how, but I knew it came from the hawk.

It felt trapped.

It wanted the sky.

"I feel exactly the same…" I whispered to the hawk, lifting my hand and repressing a sudden urge to let both them free.

I knew what it was like to feel trapped.

With a last regretful look back, I jogged away; I had to catch a bus to go home first, but then I would try the morph.

I felt like I needed the sky as much as the hawk caged behind me.

.x.

When I got home, I had expected to quickly see if my Uncle needed anything then head to my room so I could morph and leave my clothes in my wardrobe or something.

Instead, I had walked in with this dumb little grin on my face and was instantly confronted by my Uncle.

The smell of alcohol would have choked me if I wasn't so used to it.

He tried to focus on me with dilated pupils; after second he glared at me and made this weird noise in his throat. I was about to run upstairs before he had appeared so I was unfortunately barring the way between the stairs and my red-faced Uncle.

He shouted that I was in the way.

He shouted about how useless I was.

He wanted to know why I couldn't just feck off to my aunts and leave him the hell alone.

It was stupid, because even after I had seen the Yeerks, after I seen the Hork-Bajir and seen what Visser 3 had done to that brave Andalite, he still scared me.

Pathetic really.

He didn't scare me that much, I mean I was used to this, but I still looked into his jagged drunken eyes and felt a shadow of panic.

He pushed me roughly to the side before stumbling his way upstairs. My shoulder hit the banister hard, making me let out a gasp of pain. I swallowed hard and walked to our sagging sofa as a retching sound reached me from upstairs.

I wasn't exactly going to up there now.

Sinking into the worn sofa, I cringed from the smell of the sofa and my shoulder. This was nothing new and to be honest, this wasn't even that bad.

But it still stung.

I blinked several times, and then stared hard out of the window. This had happened because I was feeling good, I knew it. Something had to happen to remind me what my life really was. Something to stuff my life in my face.

I hated it. I hated my relatives, the punks at school, the bruise on my shoulder… I just… wanted to fly away.

I didn't just want to fly away, I _needed _to.

Ignoring my shoulder, I crept into the small kitchen, opened the back door slightly and shut the ancient blinds, throwing the room into semi-darkness. I quickly crawled into this space beneath the kitchen surface, where a dish washer might have gone.

I almost forgot to check the time.

My heart was pounding with anticipation. I tried to imagine what it would be like; half a mile in the air, total freedom, able to go wherever I wanted just because I felt like it… Free from everything.

Almost without realising it, I had begun morphing.

Though I was exited, the feeling of internal organs shifting around and my bones hollowing still made me want to gag. My lips were hardening, dissolving into a beak. My feet shifted and stiffened, sharps talons taking over my toes. I felt everything start to itch as feathers grew out of my skin, literally popping out. Everything was getting bigger and I realised I was shrinking.

It was almost too much.

I closed my eyes and carried on concentrating until I could tell I wasn't _me _anymore.

The red-tailed hawk's instincts were pretty calm. I knew I was inside and that made me nervous; I was keen to fly. There was also something surrounding me which stopped me from opening my wings probably; I panicked.

But I still didn't open my eyes. After a few moments, I worked on calming my new instincts, using my closed eyes as a sort of point of focus. If I made sure they stayed closed, it was easier to calm the hawk.

Finally, I was totally in control of the new body, though the instincts were still shadowing over me, making me slightly nervous.

The house was silent, almost as if the world has frozen for me; I knew better. My uncle had simply passed out, probably on the bathroom floor.

I hoped.

I ruffled my feathers, relishing the feeling.

Then I opened my eyes.

Oh. My. God.

It was as though I had been blind my whole life and could suddenly see. My eyesight was _amazing_. I could see tiny cracks in tiles across the room. I could see dust bunnies hiding in the corners of the cupboards. I could count the feathers of a bird swooping past the window.

Then it hit me.

I could fly like that too, now.

I pecked and clawed my way out of my clothes, which now seemed huge, then flared my wings, opening them for the first time. I couldn't open them fully inside the small room but it felt amazing anyway.

Then I discovered the miracle that is the hawk-walk.

Have you ever seen a bird walk? They spin their little chicken legs round in huge circles as they go and do this little head thing too; it's like a really bad dance.

You don't realise how stupid it is unless you've done it; and let's face it, you probably haven't turned into a red-tailed hawk and hawk-walked over to your back door.

I nudged the door open a bit more and worked my way out, into our yard. I had tried to keep the front of the house more or less tidy but the back was a complete tip. And now I could see that in more detail than I thought possible.

I could see the last drops of wine in cracked bottles and count the splinters from a huge pile of wood at the bottom.

But I wasn't interested in any of that.

I didn't half a clue how to begin so I took the back seat a little, allowing the hawk to do its stuff. My tail angled itself; my head ached up, my wings flared. I flapped like a daemon, until a small breeze caught me and then I was up, up and drifting higher into the sky.

I was flying.

I was surfing the wind, an eternity away from everything.

How can I explain it?

It was… amazing. Unreal. Mind-blowing.

Adrenaline and pure joy filled my body like a drug.

I was free, for the first time in my life I was totally and completely free. Nothing even came near to this. I laughed madly inside my head, feeling air rush through my feathers and talons. I could move where ever I wanted on a tiny whim and a breeze; I rose a hundred metres into the air just for the fun of it.

Then… A dive!

I folded my wings and dropped in an almost vertical free fall. It was terrifying but at the same time, the most thrilling thing I have ever done in my life.

Down, down, down! Faster, faster, faster!

The ground came rushing up at me at a breakneck speed but it was still hundreds of feet below me.

_YEE-HAAAA! _I screamed.

Faster, faster! Out of control!

Then I flared, straining every nerve in my wings to catch the air. I wasn't brave enough to go lower. Not yet.

But I was still totally high on the thrill.

Spreading my wings, I caught this awesome pillow of warm air and rode it about half a mile straight up. My muscles relaxed slightly as I rode the thermal, letting the air do most of the work. I didn't know how I knew it was called a thermal, I just did.

I tested my eyes, staring down at the ground. Even from this high up, I could see _everything_.

It was like I was superman or something.

I could count each individual sweet inside a broken gumball machine. I could actually read someone's watch and found I had been in morph for 13 minutes and 36 seconds.

Ok, so maybe I was showing off a tiny bit.

But come on, I could actually _see _the second hand on a wrist watch from half a mile up. I couldn't get over it.

I tilted my wings and began tracing my route to school, seeing my narrow, two-dimension world in an amazing, three-dimension perspective. I usually felt halfway depressed when I went this way; now I felt giddy, high on the feeling of freedom.

I'd like to see the bullies get me now! They couldn't even reach me! I was free, high in sky where no-one could catch me!

I was free from everything!

I was about to climb for another break-neck dive when I saw her.

I was still getting used to seeing the world from a birds eye view, but I instantly recognised her. She was standing outside what must have been her house, looking impatient.

Rachel.

I don't know why I flew closer to her. I really don't.

I guess she's the closest thing I have to a real friend; Jake is nice to me though sometimes, I think it's just pity. Cassie hasn't really talked to me and I get the feeling that Marco plain doesn't like me. To him, I'm still that loser from school.

But Rachel's been nice, even comforting me when we saw the Andalite's last stand and backing me up with Marco. I don't know why she does; I guess she's just a great person really.

And she's really pretty.

Not that I _like _her or anything.

_Hey Rachel! _I called down, floating round in lazy circles, letting the hawk instincts guide me when I wasn't sure what to do.

She jumped about a foot in the air then looked round, confused.

_Look up. _I suggested.

As she did, I laughed; I was just feeling so happy. She casually searched the skies and looked passed me. Then she slowly looked back at me.

Her eyes widened slightly and she mouthed _is that you?_

_You bet it is. _I laughed. _Man, you have got to try flying Rachel; it's the coolest thing in the world._

Her eyes sparkled and she smiled; She looked like she had about a million things to say (which, knowing Rachel, she probably had) but it would have looked a bit weird if someone looked out of their window to find a girl standing outside her house, talking to herself.

So, flicking her hair, she walked down the side of her house, with as much finesse as possible, in the small patch of grass between her and her neighbour's and stood against the blank wall of her house. Not exactly invisible but there was anyone around so I swooped down anyway.

I suddenly started and wondered where I should land. The ground? Maybe I could fit on the window ledge?

But then Rachel held her arm out like people on those nature shows that look after birds of prey.

Except this time, I _was _the bird of prey.

I landed on her arm, trying not to hold on too hard with my new talons.

"Wow, Tobias…" She muttered, smiling. "When did you acquire this?"

_It's a red-tailed hawk. _I said. _There was an injured one in Cassie's barn; it had a broken wing._

She thought for a second. "Oh yeah, Cassie told me about that. Well, to be honest, she tells me about _every _animal they find." Her and Cassie are best friends; total opposites, but they just seem to click. She suddenly lowered her voice. "Still I supposed that's useful now, we got a lot of new morphs just waiting for us. Plus we've got the Gardens with all the scarier stuff."

She winked.

I would have smiled, but then a remembered I didn't have a mouth anymore.

_You need something with wings. _I told her, ruffling my own gently. _Flying is just amazing… I was like a mile in the air and I could still read this guy's watch on the ground! Then I tried a dive; it's the maddest free-fall ever. It's just like… like total freedom. It's the coolest thing I've ever done. I was totally free._

She listened to me go on with my hyped-up little rant and smiled again.

Except this time, her smile seemed a little sad.

"That sounds great." She said, sincerely.

"Rachel!"

We both looked up, a little startled.

"Rachel?" Came the cry again, this time a little uncertain.

"That's Jordan, my sister." Rachel explained in a whisper, biting her lip. "I was going to take her to this party since Mom's preparing for a big court case."

_Sorry, I needn't mean to gate crash. _I tried a joke; Rachel smiled and shook her head. _You go ahead, I'll see you later._

I didn't know when later was but I quickly launched of her arm and, careful not to hit her, I flapped my way back up to the sky. When I looked back, she waved and turned to this little brown-haired girl who I guess was Jordan.

After a second, I rode a thermal away and decided to try another dive.

_.x._

I had thirty minutes left in morph.

If Jake was with me, he would be telling me to morph out now and to quit stressing the time limit.

But Jake wasn't here.

You could never really get used to flying. You would floating calmly along then randomly get hyped-up remembering how high you were and that nothing but a pillow of warm air under your wings was supporting you.

Then you'd get hyped-up on the fact you have _wings._

I loved it. I had never felt this happy before.

Between seeing how fast I could dive and swooping through the air in sheer delight, I had actually found something useful I could do.

See, when the Andalite told us all to run, I had stayed a while longer. I guess something about the dieing War-prince had touched me deeper than the others. I don't what it was exactly, but anyway, I stayed behind for a few seconds.

In those seconds, Elfangor the Andalite war-prince had pressed his palm against my forehead and I suddenly got these visions, like information and pictures, all at once. I had spent all last night awake, trying to de-tangle everything he had shown me.

I managed to get one thing out perfectly clear; Yeerk pools.

Bathed in Kandrona rays.

The thing they need to survive.

I've got this wild idea in my head that I could spot one, and then blow it up or something. Do some damage to Visser 3 and the Yeerks who had killed Elfangor.

Thing is, I had no idea what I was looking for.

I saw loads of ponds and pools and lakes and even a Jacuzzi or two but nothing looked anything like a Yeerk pool. You don't realise how many pools there, until you can see all of them laid out below you like a map.

Then it happened.

I had had seen them before of course. There are loads of them running around, in fields, in the town… there was even one skulking by Rachel's house. I think this one hit me because I was completely relaxed, riding the thermals and using my hawk eyes and scan the ground intensely.

A rat.

Like I said, the red-tailed hawk's instincts were pretty calm until then, but when I saw that rat they were suddenly turned into hyper-drive. IT was a sudden over-whelming hunger.

The Yeerk pool was sudden thrown out of my mind and suddenly my whole world was centred on the prey.

A rat. A big juicy rat.

I felt my body swing round, tilting my wings and angling up my tail. I pinpointed its quivering nose and listened intently to its muffled paws.

I could see it.

I could see a pulse throb madly in its neck.

I was hungry.

I was- _NO!_

_No, no, no!_

I quickly flapped away, panicking. I hadn't realised how strong a predators hunger was when they saw prey. It was almost over-powering.

Sure, maybe I was more flying _with _the hawk instead of taking over the instincts. I liked flying with the hawk - it helped me totally forget what I was flying away from.

But I wasn't about to kill to eat; I couldn't go that far. _Wouldn't._

Still as shaken up, I flapped like a mad thing like I caught a beautiful thermal, lifting me away.

Away and away and away.

I don't have much longer in morph. I don't know how long exactly, but I knew should find somewhere to morph.

I don't want to, but I need to.

Sighing silently, I flapped up and found a sweet little thermal and started looking for somewhere to land.

It was all clean cut suburbia, not really any handy places for me to hide… Hey!

I circled round a few times then realised I knew exactly where I was. If I was right then that house with a flat basketball on the garage was Jake's.

I half-dived down, relishing the feeling of wind through my talons and speed at my wingtips. Swooping round, I spotted Jake and Marco in his room, just standing and talking.

Jake had his back to the window.

I glided down, and then hovered outside his window, working hard because of the lack of thermals. Already tired but suddenly glowing happily, I beat my wings against the glass, making them both look round.

_Let me in, all right? I can't hover here forever! _I called.

Jake and Marco didn't recognise my voice and their faces just dropped when they realised a bird was talking to them. After a second, Jake opened the window and I instantly swooped in.

For a second, I panicked, and then I swerved and landed neatly on his dresser.

"It's some kind of eagle or something." Marco muttered, peering at me.

_Red-tailed hawk, actually. _I corrected.

"Is that you, Tobias?" Marco demanded. "I thought we weren't going to do any more of this morphing."

_I never agreed to that._

Marco made a face and Jake stepped in, frowning.

"Well, morph back, Tobias." He said. "You know what the Andalite said- never stay in any form for more than two hours."

I hesitated and tilted my head to look at him. I know it sounds weird, but I suddenly didn't want to morph back; it was like walking back into chains after just getting a taste of what real freedom was like.

Finally, I ruffled my feathers one last time and hopped over to his bed.

Then I morphed back.

Morphing can be pretty gross, and I'm not surprised that Marco turned away. Halfway through, I was a lump of pink and brown, with shadows of feathers on my chest, a slightly too small head and tiny arms with fingers like a baby's.

Pretty gross, right?

After about three minutes, the last feather faded away and I was completely normal me, sitting naked on the end of Jake's bed.

"I haven't figured out how to morph clothes yet, like Cassie," I said sheepishly. "Can I borrow some?"

As Jake turned, I noticed the bruise on my shoulder had disappeared. The bruise my drunken Uncle had gave me. The one I wanted to fly away from.

Gone.

I tried not to gaze in amazement, not wanting the others to know about it.

Jake quickly got me a pair of pants and a shirt but all his shoes were too big.

Oh well, I could always fly back.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever done in my life," I said, grinning at them, still in state of awe. "I was riding the thermals."

Jake blinked. "What's a thermal?"

"That's when there's warm air rising up from the ground." I explained, still glowing; as I recalled more of it I grew practically radio-active. "It forms this cushion under your wings. You can just float up there. Like a mile up! You just surf the thermals. You guys have got to do it! It is the best thing ever."

"Tobias, how on Earth did you do a hawk morph?" Jake demanded.

"There's an injured hawk right there in Cassie's barn, there's this cool osprey, too, but I decided on the hawk."

"How did you fly if the hawk you morphed from was injured?" He wondered, frowning at me.

Marco shook his head pityingly. "Jake, do you pay any attention in biology class? DNA has nothing to do with some injury. The DNA wasn't broken. Just a wing."

Jake ignored Marco and changed the subject slightly. "You're lucky Cassie's dad didn't catch you," he told me.

"He's so depressed," I said out of the blue.

Remembering the hawk, I remembered that sense of loss and depression he had felt; I understood him completely now. He was born in the sky, in complete freedom. All he knew was the freedom of the thermals and he was now suddenly locked up, trapped. It was horrible, terrible to think about.

Marco and Jake were looking confused.

"Who's depressed? Cassie's dad?"

"No, the hawk. I mean, I think he knows they aren't trying to hurt him or anything, but he can't stand being cooped up there while his wing heals." My eyes darkened. "It's terrible when birds have to be locked up in cages. They should be free." I added with a sudden passion.

"Yeah, free the birds," Marco commented sarcastically. "I'll get the bumper stickers printed up."

"You wouldn't have that attitude if you'd been up there with me," I said angrily. They just didn't understand. "It was cool being a cat and all. But a hawk! It's just total, absolute freedom."

Marco sort of rolled his eyes and looked away, but Jake looked suddenly troubled as though he was trying to understand something.

I glanced out of the window and felt my spirits lifted from just the thought of it. When I looked back, Jake met my eyes with his steady stare.

"No more than two hours in any morph, right?" He warned again. "You can keep track of time, right?"

I smiled. _Of course I could keep track of time… no problem…_

_.x._

"What does this have to do with you flying around playing Superman?"

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have gone into so much detail about how amazing flying was. But hey, that _was _how it made you feel.

I had just told them everything I knew about Yeerk pools and What Elfangor the Andalite had shown me while I stayed behind. Marco hadn't really said anything apart from to sneer at me being superman. Jake however, seemed interested.

"Well, it seems dumb now, but I was thinking maybe I could see the Yeerk pool." I made a rueful smile. "Saw a lot of swimming pools and some ponds. You get up there and you realize there are ponds and lakes and streams everywhere. But I didn't see anything special."

"And what if you found some Yeerk pool? Then what?" Marco demanded.

I took a breath. "Then we'd blow it up,"

"Wrong," Marco said, firmly. "We decided not to get into this."

"No, we decided not to decide yet," Jake corrected.

"Well, I've decided," I told them; It was so clear to me, this was what I had to do.

"Suddenly the wimp is a hero," Marco sneered.

I thought of flying, the total freedom I had always dreamed of. I thought of Elfangor, the brave Andalite who had moved me so deeply. I thought of the bruise, what is represented and how it had simply disappeared.

I thought of Rachel too.

"Maybe I just found something worth fighting for, Marco." I said, meeting his gaze.

"You don't even fight for yourself," He scoffed.

I wondered whether Elfangor fought for himself. Somehow I didn't think he did; I think he had someone he was fighting for.

And I think I do too; after all, now I have a way to be free. Who wouldn't want that?

"That was before," I said softly. "Before the Andalite. Before he died trying to save us. I can't let that go. I can't let him die for nothing. So whatever you guys decide, I'm going to fight."

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**Hehe...I couldn't help the bits of Tobias/Rachel... They're just so cute ^.^ And they did like each other in the first book! HA! XD**

**Anyway... I didn't really like the middle but please review and tell me what you think :)**

**ROCK ON DUDES AND DUDETTES! .......... and red-tailed hawks.....  
**


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